June 2017

This month our prayers will focus on a new project aimed at addressing the healthcare needs of people who live along the lakeshore in northern Malawi. In this area of Malawi, 80% of the population live on less than a dollar a day and many of these people are sick with very little access to quality healthcare.

The women and young girls in the area are vulnerable and of low status, health clinics are often in a terrible shape with shortages of good essential healthcare staff, and transport to healthcare can be non-existent.

The majority of Malawi’s healthcare staff are from urban areas and the remote location and poor housing does not attract them to this remote lakeshore area. The project will seek to address these issues in a variety of ways.

To improve the healthcare staff shortage, lakeside residents, particularly women will be identified and given the opportunity to train as healthcare workers. Better staff housing will be provided so that these healthcare workers will have somewhere suitable to stay.

Currently many people have to travel in unreliable boats to access health clinics so the project will provide vehicles such as an ambulance speedboat. This will greatly decrease the time and increase the reliability for lakeside residents to get healthcare.

Just as importantly, the Nyanja Health project will raise the status and health of young girls and women in two ways – their access to healthcare will be improved, and they will also have the opportunity to train as healthcare workers so enjoying the societal and economic benefits that go along with having a salaried job.